cleaning heads

alright. i pulled my heads off after i picked my motor up today. they didnt get cleaned so i need to clean them. i work on a plating line and we have a caustic cleaner tank. can i just put the whole head assembly in the tank or should i disassemble it? im not going to turn on the barrel rotation either. im gonna set them in the barrel, every now again pull the barrel up and let it back down. prolly do that for about 20 min. I would like someone elses thoughts on this. thanks